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Tony Wakeham
Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador
Confederation Building
St. John’s, NL A1B 4J6
Dear Premier Wakeham,
I am writing to you today to clarify issues with respect to Unifor’s ongoing collective bargaining with Marine Atlantic.
Over the previous two weeks, a narrative has emerged suggesting that our union is attempting to shut down the ferry service or compromise the safety of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.
This is absolutely not the case.
Unifor is currently engaged in a routine and legally mandated process under Section 87.4 of the Canada Labour Code. This process is necessary because of Marine Atlantic’s refusal to engage in serious negotiations on a Maintenance of Activities Agreement with the union.
Our primary focus is to get an independent assessment of what constitutes an essential service for Marine Atlantic.
Federal law defines this strictly as activities required to prevent an "immediate and serious danger to the safety or health of the public." Unifor's proposed essential services plan is carefully designed to ensure that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador remain protected, maintaining enough crossings in order to safeguard the delivery of items such as food, medicine, critical supplies and other cargo during any labour dispute.
The federal labour board will hold hearings on this matter at which time the union and the employer will be required to present their arguments around what is essential for the purposes of the legislation and the services.
No action can take place until the Board issues its ruling. In the meantime, there is absolutely nothing stopping Marine Atlantic from bargaining with our union. It is their decision not to bargain. And as you will see from the below history, this has been a pattern by this employer.
Marine Atlantic has insisted on a 100% of work is essential, a position that effectively strips our members of their Constitutional right to collective bargaining. If a service is deemed 100% essential at all times, the employer has no incentive to negotiate in good faith and this employer certainly falls into the category of failing to negotiate in a fair and timely manner. Unfortunately, our members have felt the repercussions of this and Marine Atlantic has faced no consequences for the years of delays and suppressed wages.
There is ferry service to Newfoundland and Labrador because there is a Constitutional mandate for the federal government to fund it. However, there is also a Constitutional right to engage in collective bargaining, including the right to strike. What we have seen from Marine Atlantic is a pattern of behaviour that does not constitute fair collective bargaining.
Constitutionality of the funding of the services cannot be used as a shield for poor management, low wages, years of expired contracts, and frozen benefits.
Clarifying Facts
- Unifor and its predecessors (Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers Union and CAW) have bargained with Marine Atlantic since 1990.
- We represent 600 unlicensed ship personnel, including deckhands, bosuns, stewards, passenger service staff, cooks, and engine room assistants and 52 shore-based maintenance employees.
- There have been persistent bargaining delays by Marine Atlantic since 2004.
- Marine Atlantic has consistently rejected negotiations on improved wages and benefits.
- Rejection of bargaining forces us into binding arbitration.
- The 2020-2022 agreement took four years to finalize, concluding in 2023 despite early notice to bargain being given by our union in 2019.
- The 2023-2025 agreement was not reached until 18 months after our contract expired.
- A 2008 Ruling of the CIRB clarified that while the 2004 service-level requirement applied to all unions. But the CIRB also ruled that CAW (now Unifor) retained the right to argue that specific (not all) duties performed by its members could be withdrawn without lowering the overall required level of ferry service.
We ask that your government recognize that a reliable ferry service depends on fairly negotiated contracts and decent wages. We are always willing to bargain and in fact take a great deal of pride in our collective bargaining history and record, reaching deals at the bargaining table with some of the largest employers in the country, indeed in the world.
Premier, it takes two to tango and two parties to reach an agreement that is fair. Right now, what we have is one party, our union, willing to bargain and another party, the employer, who believes it has the upper hand because it is counting on the entire service being deemed essential.
I am happy to meet with you at anytime to discuss this. I also respectfully ask you to speak with Marine Atlantic officials to encourage the company to come to the table and bargain fairly with us.
Sincerely,
Lana Payne
National President
